The city collaborative – how can a city think better?

Geoff Mulgan – Lots of activity is underway on smart cities and data, but surprisingly little on the more fundamental question of how a city can think better about its shared threats and opportunities. Here I set out some frameworks, some answers, and some useful models. I’m particularly interested in methods that help to bring together multiple tiers of government and multiple agencies to think and act effectively around issues like public health, growing new economic clusters or reducing worklessness. I describe one model of a city collaborative that was tried out in London, which I think was ahead of its time, and would like to hear of parallel approaches that have worked in other big cities.